SEREMBAN: In a move to get errant motorists to pay their summonses and to reduce backlog, the authorities are offering a 50% discount to those who settle their tickets within two weeks from Wednesday.

Those who settle their dues between two weeks and a month will be entitled to a 30% discount.

After that, offenders will be required to pay the full amount of the summonses issued to them.

A government official who disclosed this said motorists who were issued with tickets during the Ops Sikap exercise or those already issued with arrest warrants would not be entitled to the discounts.

“Those issued with summonses for serious accidents will also not be given the discounts,” he said.

(Ops Sikap is a traffic safety operation carried out by the police to ensure safety on all during festive seasons, such as Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Deepavali, Christmas and Chinese New Year. The operation began also involves the Road Transport Department, Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board and the National Anti-Drugs Agency).

The official said the authorities will not entertain any appeal for reduction after a month, adding that those issued with summonses before Dec 1 but had failed to settle them will also be entitled to a 50% reprieve.

“The move is to encourage more traffic offenders to pay up. We do not want the list of people blacklisted to increase,” he said.

It is understood that traffic offenders have chalked up to 15 million summonses for various offences in recent years.

Almost 90% of the tickets were issued by the police. The rest were by the Road Transport Department.

Also, it is learnt, some 650,000 motorists are on the police blacklist for failing to settle their traffic summonses.

It is understood that the police issued between 10,000 and 15,000 summonses daily.

KUALA LUMPUR: Motorists thronged the traffic police headquarters to take advantage of the two-week 50% discount for traffic summonses which began yesterday.

The Jalan Tun H.S. Lee station saw police being kept busy by motorists queuing to pay their fines.

The Star’s front-page report yesterday stated that a 50% discount was to encourage offenders to pay their summonses and aimed at reducing the backlog before the offenders were blacklisted starting Feb 28.

The 50% discount ends on Dec 14. After this date, the discount would be 30% until the end of the month.

Businessman Alvin Cheong, 52 said he came to know about the discount after reading the newspaper.

“I came two months ago but I could not settle the summons. I had expected the discount to happen again, so here I am,” he said.

Andrew Asir, 23 said he always waited for the police to announce such discounts.

However, he said he felt the police should open more counters.

“The police should open extra counters especially during discount periods like this one,” said Asir.

There were some in the queue who were unaware about the discount.

“I didn’t know there was a discount. I’m just here to settle a speeding summons,” said Nushratul Zahini Ghazali, 29.

PETALING JAYA: Motorists who settled their summonses promptly are now feeling “cheated” following the 50% discount offer for outstanding traffic tickets.

“It is unfair to people like me who paid up speedily two months ago,” said a motorist known only as Des.

“I should have listened to my wife who told me not to pay. It pays not to pay. She is right,” he said in a text message to The Star.

A number of road users sent similar text messages, expressing their dissatisfaction that their prompt settlement of the traffic fines had led them to miss out on the discount.

The Star reported yesterday that traffic offenders are given a 50% discount if they settle their summonses within two weeks. Those who pay up after the two-week grace period but by the end of the month will get a 30% discount.

The move is intended to reduce the backlog of summonses before the authorities blacklist traffic offenders from Feb 28.

The previous occasions discounts of varying degree have been offered on traffic summonses were in January and September 2005 and in July 2008.

Motorists were also allowed to appeal for discounts from district police chiefs between 2005 and 2008.

“The discount is bad. Look, there are more deaths on the road, and more indiscipline,” a motorist said.

Another reader of The Star, who called himself Patriot, said: “Traffic summonses have become a bargainable ‘product’, which is subject to discount offer.”

Another reader, who said he was now “getting smarter”, added: “I feel stupid for paying all my summonses on time.”

However, an online poll carried out by The Star revealed a different view. As of 10.15pm, about 62% of the 1,886 respondents said they welcomed the 50% discount.

Fomca chief executive officer Datuk Paul Selvaraj said traffic offenders should be given ample time to settle their traffic summonses.

He said the authorities should not limit the discount offer to a one or two-week period.

As for the motorists, he said they should not view the discount lightly as the bottom line was that they had broken the law.

“Those who were fined must pay up, otherwise, they must be prepared to face action,” he said.

Bus Operators Association president Datuk Ashfar Ali said the one-off discount was part of an ongoing campaign to clear the backlog of summonses.

Ashfar, who is on the summons committee headed by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Sidek Hassan, said that beginning March, summonses would be categorised according to the offence.

The fine would increase if the summons was not settled within a certain period.

“My advice to motorists is to take advantage of this final discount and start the new year with a clean slate,” he said.